SBTC founding board member remembered as ‘champion, warrior’ for Christ

By Gary Ledbetter
November 7, 2023

LUBBOCK—Almeida “Skeet” Workman, a founding Southern Baptists of Texas Convention board member, died Nov. 3. She was 85.

Visitation will be at Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 8:30 a.m. Her funeral will follow at 10 a.m.

Workman was a board member for the convention’s precursor group, the Southern Baptists of Texas, Inc., and then joined the new convention’s executive board in 1998. She also served the Southern Baptist Convention in key roles during and after the denomination’s Conservative Resurgence (1979-1995). She was a member of the SBC denominational calendar committee when that body debated adding a Sanctity of Human Life Sunday to the convention’s list of emphasis Sundays. In what she later described as her most memorable role in the SBC, she cast the deciding vote in favor of the addition. She was later a member of the boards for the Christian Life Commission (now called the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission) and the International Mission Board.

SBTC Executive Director Emeritus Jim Richards served alongside Workman during her time on the Christian Life Commission and from the beginning as she served the SBTC.

“We have lost a champion for salt and light in this world in the passing of Skeet Workman,” Richards said. “She was indefatigable in her stand for the Word of God. Skeet was a voice for the unborn and the model of a prayer warrior. We have few of her courage today. She eschewed the trends of feminism yet was one of the strongest women I have ever known. She heard, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ from Jesus when she entered heaven.”

Skeet and her husband, Don, were married in 1961. They were longtime members of Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock and active advocates for pro-family issues in Texas. Skeet was part of the Texas Eagle Forum and formed a Lubbock chapter of Pray America, an effort to mobilize prayer for the nation and its leaders.

Her love for God and country continued through the end of her life. In an article printed in the November 2023 issue of Southern Baptist Texan magazine, Skeet said, “Prayer is more important than [anything], and right now, God is the only one who can save America. I guess we just pray for America. That’s what we do.”